Prefabrication experiments - 140 - visions of the future - 01 - Cellophane House

Refabricating architecture published in 2004 reaffirmed prefabrication’s appeal for architects and shared a vision for the reorganization of building culture.  Manufacturing, long thought to be unconnected from architectural design, could now be part of a holistic design to construction process with the architect firmly positioned at its core. Contemporary computerized tools triggered this revolution. Already more than a decade later, cad tools are further streamlining with cam tools giving the architect unprecedented access to the factory floor.

Kieran and Timberlake's contemporary manifest is perhaps as important to prefabricated architecture as Gropius’ work was in the early twentieth century. Gropius argued first for architecture made from manufactured components leveraged into many design options. In the same way Kieran and Timberlake’s work first on the Loblolly House in 2006 and then in their prototype design for the Cellophane House inspired a new generation of architects to rethink the factory production of houses. 

Cellophane house is one of five prototypes built to be included in MOMA’s rekindling of prefabrication exhibit entitled Home delivery: fabricating the modern dwelling (2008). The five prototypes reintroduced prefab exploration and continued the lasting conceptualization of the exhibit house prototype as a necessary component for architecture’s advancement.

The Cellophane House, a derivative of the canonical modern glasshouse proposed a five storey scaled-up «Le Corbusier’s Citrohan House» like prism assembled from a kit of industrialized parts. An off the shelf aluminum post and beam frame, manufactured «chunks» or modular building sub-assemblies such as kitchens and baths and variable skins or cladding are the three basic elements of this plug and play building syntax. The system is cleverly designed to facilitate both assembly and disassembly, to challenge traditional construction and propose flexible and modular data informed parts that can be employed for many different designs.

Beyond the architects’ exploration of Smartwrap (a trademarked structural multi-functional bioclimatic adaptable cladding capable of reacting to changing environmental conditions), the real innovation is the systems’ horizontal and vertical scalability. A statement on mass customization, the modular structure can be modulated for different site topographies, orientations and any functional layout.  Furthermore, the kit can accommodate a variety of materials to suit different needs, tastes, and budgets.

Cellophane House layers and components